If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you must find the courage to live it. --John Irving

Monday, April 23, 2007

A double bill...

And not the fun kind, like two movies! Two vet bills!

Hobo had dental surgery today. At least I was expecting that bill. It had to be done. He was having trouble chewing and just wasn't his nutty little self. He lost five teeth on this top jaw, mostly big molars. Hobo is unconcerned by this and even at a bit of canned food for his dinner tonight. He's a little quiet and a little wobbly, but otherwise he's Hobo.

The other half of the bill was not expected and the dog is not so happy!

Thursday night, I let Pacer out of his pen to come inside. That's the routine, I let him out, he runs to the house. Pacer isn't allowed to be in the main yard unsupervised as he has been beat up before. He's very timid and won't fight back, so he gets bullied sometimes. This routine has prevented any injuries to Pacer for almost two years. That night he ran too close to a cranky Pingo, who has sore hips right now and who was guarding her precious tennis balls. It's out of character for Pingo to be snarly. I assume the painkillers hadn't kicked in yet and that she didn't really mean to connect with Pacer's head. But connect she did!

It looked like a simple puncture wound. I called the vet on call...Dr. Rick Brown again! He's on call alot it seems! I got instructions on how to clean the wound, give out some Metacam and pick up antibiotics in the morning. All seemed to be well.

Until Saturday when the wound started to look a bit puffy. By Sunday it was clearly infected despite the antibiotics. So Pacer got dropped off at the clinic this morning too.

Pacer's handsome little face does not look like this tonight! He looks more like a gargoyle than a pretty boy! The area above his left eye is swollen and gross! Some of the tissue under the puncture had died so they had to cut his face open a bit and clean that out. Then they left the bottom of the incision open for drainage. I'll spare you any further details of that!

At least Hobo will be able to chew again soon and Pacer's vision is unaffected. He may have a scar on his handsome profile, but he'll be able to see!

4 comments:

Sorry to hear about Pacer's run-in! He sounds EXACTLY like Octane, who now, when he sees the 3-monsters he whimpers and runs away with his tail between his legs. They are ALWAYS separate from him (after they beat him up when he escaped from the back pen into the yard around the cabin).

He just won't fight back, and everybody seems to know it and pick on him extra because of that. I hate it!

And bummer about those scars on that pretty Pacer face! Hopefully they'll heal - eventually. Get well, and watch where you're going next time! :)